The present invention relates to an incubator hood, an incubator having the incubator hood, a hydrophilic sheet for incubators, and a hydrophilic antibacterial film for incubators, particularly to an incubator hood that is used for housing a premature neonate, a sickly infant, a neonate after surgery or the like and has a hydrophilized portion on at least a part of its inner surface, an incubator having the incubator hood, a hydrophilic sheet for incubators for use in forming the incubator hood, and a hydrophilic antibacterial film for incubators.
Conventionally, incubators have been used for providing premature neonates who have low adaptability to an environment outside of wombs of their mothers, sickly infants, neonates after surgery and the like (hereinafter represented by “neonate(s)”) with the environment allowing them to grow during a certain period of time in infancy by means of heat retention, humidity retention, isolation and observation or monitoring.
Such an incubator has the configuration that enables a neonate to be isolated from the outside, enables the internal temperature, humidity and the like to be automatically adjusted and also enables the internal oxygen concentration to be freely adjusted in order to provide a proper environment to the neonate having low adaptability to an environment. The upper portion of the incubator is constituted by an incubator hood that is composed of transparent synthetic resin and that covers a base table serving as a bed on which a neonate lies, and the thus configured incubator hood makes the observation easy. The incubator hood has two or four arm holes at its lateral and/or front side or in addition thereto, two arm holes at its back side to allow two hands to enter the incubator through two of the arm holes to give various treatments such as suckling, care and medical examination to the neonate and thus, the infection prevention effect is also taken into account.
Four important functions of such incubators are heat retention, humidification, infection prevention and oxygenation.
The heat retention function is the most important function for incubators. Neonates have a larger body surface area per unit weight and a smaller subcutaneous tissue thickness compared to adults and therefore, have great difficulty in maintaining their body temperatures by themselves. When much energy is used to maintain the body temperature, this results in shortage of energy to be used in growth. Therefore, it is necessary to always maintain the temperature at which a neonate is allowed to have a constant body temperature with the minimum energy consumption.
The humidification function is required because the humidity in an incubator needs to be controlled in order to prevent water evaporation from a neonate's body and succeeding heat loss of the neonate. In particular, in the case of extremely premature neonates and minimum immature neonates, a high humidity of 80% to 90% need to be maintained over one week immediately after birth.
The infection prevention function is required because it is “infection” that babies having low resistance need to be careful about. Since the environment (temperature and humidity) comfortable for neonates is also a good environment for bacteria and viruses to reproduce, when bacteria and viruses (hereinafter represented by “bacteria”) and the like are present in the air entering an incubator, the bacteria and the like easily reproduce and may cause the infection. Therefore, the air to enter an incubator needs to be filtered by a filter or the like to thereby prevent the entry of dust, bacteria and the like.
The oxygenation function is required because it is necessary to send oxygen indispensable for a neonate. Neonates born with the lungs not yet fully developed need an oxygen concentration higher than usual.
As described above, the interior of an incubator is usually kept at a temperature higher than room temperature and a high humidity for controlling the neonate's body temperature. Consequently, the inner surface of a transparent incubator hood fogs up or has condensation, which impairs the visibility of the interior of the incubator. As a result, this may hamper the observation of neonate's condition as well as suckling, care, medical examination and other various treatments for the neonate. Meanwhile, dust, bacteria and the like are removed by a filter or the like from the air entering the incubator and hence, bacteria and the like would not reproduce in the normal environment in the incubator even when the inner surface of the incubator hood fogs up to some extent. If, however, the condensation occurs on the inner surface and stays for a long period of time, various bacteria and mold may grow at the portion having the condensation and infect the neonate.
Thus, when the inner surface of the incubator hood fogs up or has condensation, the fog and the condensation need to be wiped off but wiping with the neonate lying in the incubator is dangerous and also it is dangerous to transfer the neonate to another incubator for avoiding an antiseptic solution or the like used in wiping because the environment greatly changes.
To cope with it, one possible measure is to apply an antifogging agent or an antibacterial agent onto the inner surface of the incubator hood. However, such an antifogging agent or antibacterial agent may be dissolved and released in the high humidity environment in the incubator, so that the effects thereof decrease and in addition, the risk that the released antifogging agent or antibacterial agent may affect the neonate cannot be ignored.
JP 2002-113053 A discloses the technique in which at least a part of the inner surface of a plastic hood, i.e., an incubator hood made of plastic is coated with a photocatalyst so as to have antifogging properties and antibacterial properties whereby the condensation on the inner surface of the plastic hood and the growth of mold and various bacteria can be prevented and a neonate can safely receive care during the stay in the incubator.
When it comes to antibacterial properties, medical devices used in the medical settings continuously come in contact with an unspecified large number of people such as patients and medical personnel and therefore, in recent years, the technique in which an antibacterial layer is provided on a surface of each device to suppress the growth of bacteria and reduce the risk of infection causing diseases has been drawing attention as disclosed by, for example, JP 09-131389 A and JP 2002-337277 A.
JP 09-131389 A discloses a silver antibacterial agent in which a silica gel carrier carries a silver complex and a controlled release antibacterial material composed of a silica gel and an organic binder.
JP 2002-337277 A discloses a front panel made up of a scratch-resistant film including an antibacterial agent composed of a silver-containing phosphate double salt and a substrate.